Month: October 2020

Branding For Beginners – Everything you Need to Know

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business whether that be large or small and will give you a major edge in increasingly competitive market sectors. We want to help everyone understand what effective branding means and how it can affect start-up businesses for the better. 

In a sentence, your brand is a promise to your customer and lets them know what they can expect from your products, services and what makes you different to your competitors. Your brand is an insight into who you are and where you want to be in the future. The foundation of your branding will be your logo followed by the rest of your business stationery which will follow suit in regard to the colour scheme, font, and more. 

Where Do I Start?  

Your brand is usually defined as a combination of elements that define your business. These elements usually include a slogan, logo, business ethos and motto the first step in defining a brand is to decide on a name. If you are struggling to come up with a name, you might find that you will come up with one once the creative process starts. 

Defining Your Brand 

Defining your brand is like a journey of discovering your business’s identity. You should start by asking yourself a couple of questions: 

  • What is your company’s mission? 
  • What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
  • What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
  • What qualities do you want them to associate with your company? 

Your branding is who you are as a company; it’s your values and your mission, the way to treat your customers, the look and feel of your visual assets. So, before you start budgeting for a designer you need to take time to get on who you are and what you’re about, the more you can infuse that identity into your branding and the more your brand will stand out and grab customers attention as a result. 

Every successful brand has a powerful purpose behind it and you should use these ideas to inform the foundation of your branding. nce you have found the perfect name for your business, you will need to think about how you can best visually represent your brand, namely your colours and typography. Choosing all of this will be perfect when you start to make your own website.

Who Is Your Customer?

So many businesses focus on what they are selling that they forget to pay attention to who their product may be for. When you know who your target customer is, you can use it to guide your branding strategy and identity – and the end result will be a brand that truly connects with the customers you want to work with most. 

If you are a new company with little to no sales data, you can always have a look at competitors and make educated assumptions on who your audience may be.

If you are an existing business, it’s important to gather an understanding of who you are already helping with your product or service. It is important to find out who your product or service is helping to continue to target those people.

Applying Your Branding Across Your Business

Applying your branding across your business will give you a cohesive brand story. Your brand story will represent who your business is and what it stands for. Branding sets the stage for every interaction customers have your brand whether that be in-store or online. 

If your business has a story it is so important to share it because it can help your customers feel connected and reassured your business is right for them. When writing your business story you should ask yourself what motivated you to start your business?, why does the company exist?, how do we contribute to the world? And what is the story behind my business which my customers should know.

Evolve Your Brand As You Grow

 

Building your brand doesn’t stop with creating a logo and slogans, or even your brand launch. Your brand needs to remain consistent throughout your marketing materials and how you package and ship your products. 

You should also think about shaping and evolving your brand as you expose more customers to it and learn more about who your customers are and how you speak to them. It is really important however to appreciate that you will never have complete control over how people perceive your brand. 

Things To Know About Landlords’ Insurance

Things To Know About Landlords’ Insurance

The job of the landlord can always go wrong so it is very important to be protected. This is a business that can quickly become really expensive. Without the right coverage, a lot of money can be lost. 

Is Landlords’ Insurance Needed?

The short answer to this is yes. A very good landlords’ insurance policy includes countless very useful features, like accidental damage coverage, building insurance, and even financial protection when rent is lost. While it is not mandatory from a legal point of view, having one from a good provider like Deacon can offer a huge protection level that you simply cannot have without it. 

In order to properly understand why, here are some of the policies that are normally included in a landlords’ insurance policy. 

Building Insurance

This is the main coverage that the landlord needs. It is very important because of the fact that it protects the property’s bricks and mortar. As an example, in the event that the property is damaged by fire or flooding, this insurance covers rebuilding costs. 

At times, the policy can include bathroom suites and kitchen units and some policies even cover garages, sheds, or other outbuildings. Just look at the rebuilding cost of the property and you can easily figure out how important the policy is. 

Contents Insurance

When the property is rented with a part-furnished or fully-furnished deal, this insurance becomes vital since it protects sofas, carpets, beds, and basically all possessions you own from damage and theft. 

Extra coverage can be added if you want to also be covered in the event that accidental damage happens. This includes everything from coffee stains on rugs to smashed mirrors. 

As a landlord, try to find a policy that replaces belongings and that uses the “new for old” system. This means that possessions end up replaced with new ones when claims happen. 

Liability Insurance

You can add liability insurance to most plans, including landlords’ insurance. In some times, it can even be a requirement, like when you offer social housing or student housing. 

Such insurance is going to protect you against the tenants that will sue you when an accident happens on the property you own. It practically covers countless unexpected possible situations in which an accident leads to the death or the injury of a person while on your property. 

Legal Expenses Insurance

Another policy that you want to consider is this one because it helps you to get coverage for legal costs that appear because of tenant disputes. This includes repossessing property and evicting squatters. In addition, the policy can cover the costs of having to defend yourself against criminal actions. 

The policy can be extended in order to recover all the legal costs associated with recovering outstanding rent owned. This is definitely a little extra that you should consider and check to see if the insurance provider offers it. 

On the whole, landlords’ insurance is always necessary but policies can vary a lot from one provider to the other. This is why shopping around is a very good idea. 

How To Take Care Of Your Indoor Plants – A Quick Guide

Indoor plants have to be nurtured and you need to take care of them in a much different way than outdoor plants. This includes watering and so much more. People are used to watering their indoor plants just once per week and that is fine if you choose a plant that can work with this. If not, you will have to choose something else. 

One of the most important things is definitely watering. Fortunately, you can invest in a really good hydroponics system. Just look at Progrow and you can easily find everything that you need, including lights. 

When it comes to watering, most indoor plants just need your care one time per week. During winter and autumn, you can even reduce the frequency to around 2 to 3 times per 2 months. 

Obviously, you will also need to feed your plants. The best option is a quality controlled-release fertilizer under a granule form. Make sure that you pick off all the older leaves so that you can allow brand new ones to grow. A seaweed solution can also help to maintain optimum health. 

Dealing With Pests

When the plant is stressed (not fed or watered correctly), insect attacks can happen. With indoor plants, we have fewer pests to worry about but this does not mean they do not exist. Usually, the one that you have to worry about is the mealy bug. This is a hairy insect. It is white and around 3 mm long. When there are just a few of them present, you can just manually remove them. However, if the infestation is larger, you will need to use a natural pest control solution. 

You may also want to deal with scales, which are smaller insects. PestOil is enough for the affected leaves. 

Keep Indoor Plants Alive With These Simple Tips:

  • When it is time to re-pot, make sure that the potting mix you use is of the best possible quality. 
  • When you clean the leaves, just create a solution of 50:50 water and milk. This keeps your leaves free of dust, healthy, and glossy. 
  • Consider fiberglass pots because they are very easy to move whenever you decide to decorate. 
  • Be careful with the plants that are close to windows, especially during summer. This is because stronger sun can easily burn indoor plant leaves. 
  • If you notice brown tips on the leaves, it is usually because of watering problems. Sometimes there is too little water and in other cases, there is too much water. 
  • Make sure that plants are not left near the heaters during the winter. They will end up being too hot and leaves can burn. 
  • If the saucer of the pot is full of water, remove it as soon as possible. Such a water-filled environment makes the plant rot. 
  • The number of plants that can deal with air conditioning is limited. Be particularly careful when you have such an indoor condition. 
  • Water crystals can be added to your potting mix in order to help the plants deal with longer periods without exposure to water. 

Service Delivery Is Being Changed By Technology

In the past, service deliveries and quality of services were evaluated mostly based on direct human interaction. This fact is no longer valid because technology is actively changing how most services are delivered and designed. There are many different trends that can be mentioned in regards to the way in which technology is changing services so let us explore some of the trends. 

Moving To Self Service And Automation

Whenever looking at service delivery in the past, there were personnel that had to be met in order to start the customer journey. Nowadays, there are many more options available, mainly because of the evolution of automated solutions and self-service. 

A very good example of this is Shift. The logistics platform uses technology to pair people interested in deliveries with free spots available in fleets. This means that there is no longer a need to interact with a human and the entire service becomes automated. We can also mention retail stores and their self-service lanes, supermarkets, gas pumps, and airline check-ins as wonderful examples. 

In addition, when you call customer support, you are often met by automated operators. At the same time, many language software programs are responsible for the responses you receive via email to some queries. 

Automated services and self-service technologies are very beneficial for consumers. This is because the service that is received is more accurate while time is not wasted in queues. Simply put, inquiries are being processed much faster than ever, all while operational costs are decreased. Services can easily be offered at lower costs right now. 

More Services Available

The internet practically eliminated boundaries. Technology drastically expands the potential reach when it comes to servicing customers. Just some years ago, this was just a dream. 

Most of the services we consumed in the past were local. Nowadays, with a few clicks, transactions and services are becoming accessible across countries and even continents. 

Most of the services that can be delivered across large distances are digital. This is actually an opportunity for companies that can focus on this as opposed to having to rely on physical inventories that are very costly. We just need to think about services like Netflix and Amazon to realize how valuable this is. 

Consumer Data

When technology started to influence service delivery and availability, a large part of the criticism that appeared was that human touch was lost. This did not happen. We now have access to many different online tools that allow businesses to gather a lot of consumer data. In fact, it is much easier to get consumer data on the internet than in a face-to-face scenario, especially when referring to wishes and needs because the online world also offers anonymity. 

On the whole, the most important thing is that technology increases automation and reduces costs for businesses. At the same time, customer data can be gathered really fast so that it is analyzed with the purpose of meeting the needs of the customers. Companies have to stay ahead of the curve and adapt.